‘I love the USA’: Organizers of Independence Day event put out special call to Latino population

SANDY — As Independence Day and the 250th anniversary of the United States looms, Olga Mendez, for one, is eager to mark the occasion.

“I love the USA. I love the American dream. I’m so glad I came,” said Mendez, originally from the Dominican Republican but now living in Draper. “I’m very happy for everything I have, the freedom I have.”

People all over Utah and beyond will be marking the nation’s independence through a range of activities in the coming days. Americans for Prosperity of Utah and its affiliate geared to the Latino community, the Libre Initiative, hosted an event Wednesday in Sandy, Let Freedom Ring, making a particular effort to encourage Latino participation.

Mendez was there, one of just a handful of Latinos who ultimately showed up, but those involved say the conservative, small-government message of Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, resonates with many.

He’s an advocate “for a free market system, for self-governance, for a limited government, economic freedom, educational freedom that empowers the parents,” said Libre Initiative President Daniel Garza, who traveled from Texas for the Sandy event. “These are the things that I see that are worth fighting for. Millions of Latinos align with that.”

To be sure, organizers stressed that Wednesday’s event at the Sandy Amphitheater, which featured a performance by country music duo LoCash, was meant mainly as a celebration of the United States.

“What we’re celebrating is our country, the American dream, our founding ideals. I think that transcends Latino, non-Latino cultures and populations,” said Kevin Greene, director of the Utah AFP chapter.

Garza, the son of immigrants from Mexico who labored as farm workers, seconded that.

“There was a revolutionary war that was fought, but the real revolution was the ideas, the ideas of self-governance,” he said. “We want to emphasize what those ideas are and what they’ve meant to us as a people and why we fight for those enduring principles that are still with us 250 years later.”

Nevertheless, the Libre Initiative officials also emphasized that AFP’s priorities of keeping government power in check, empowering the individual, promoting economic development and more resonate among Latinos.

The initiative aims “to engage and empower the Hispanic community to assure that they have a voice and advance those policies to make sure that we keep the American dream alive,” said Angel Merlos, strategic director for the Libre Initiative’s Colorado chapter and an attendee at the Sandy event. “We are very entrepreneurial. As a community, our values are very conservative and we want to see lower taxes. We want to be able to pursue happiness or business, whatever it may be.”

He noted the growth in the Latino population and its increasing political clout.

“Our community is continuing to grow,” said Merlos, the son of immigrants from El Salvador. “We have an important role in government. We have an important role in being in civic engagement. A lot of elections are determined by Latinos and we should be advancing policies … that promote the American dream.”

A woman at the event who identified herself as Esther, an immigrant from Panama, stressed the liberty she has found since coming to the United States. She lived in Panama during the government of military strongman Manuel Noriega.

“We want the freedom. I came from a very military government. It wasn’t good,” she said.

Such stories, Garza said, are commonplace.

Immigrants coming here are “able to fulfill their American dream in a way that exceeded their expectations, and that had a lot to do with that economic system that allows for people who face enormous barriers to achieve success in America,” he said. “We want to make sure that we fight for those principles that make it possible for other Latinos to rise.”